Project Generation Gap Gets More Mods And A Coat Of Primer

Last month we left off with our '68 Mustang project, Generation Gap, back in the care of the folks at Classic Creations of Central Florida for our final series of stories on body prep and paint. We know there's been quite a dry spell between our last round of work and the start of our paint portion of the project in the March issue. Hopefully, we'll be back on track now with monthly, or near monthly, stories on the project as we squirt the color, and start working on plumbing, wiring, interior, and more. We'll also be posting updates on our blog section of our website at blogs.mustangandfords.com, as well as our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/modmustangsandfords.

Our work in the March issue included our first application of K38 high-build primer, as well as working on some rough sections of body filler where fiberglass parts had been molded in, such as our wheel flares. We also worked on truing up our fender-to-hood gaps, too. To continue our work in this issue, we'll be adding the last of our body upgrades-LED side markers and an LED CHMSL (center high mount stop lamp, or third brake light)-and prepping the body further with another coat of K38. Then, more sanding, getting our final gaps set, and then our sealer coat of DP50 primer. At that point, we'll be down to some final wet sanding and we'll be ready to break the car down (removing the hood, fascia, door handles, trunk lid, and so forth) to get it ready for spraying our basecoat.

Speaking of color, longtime readers will remember when we started down the road of this build, we discussed production Ford colors when we unveiled our artist illustration from Cars by Chris (www.cars-by-chris.com). As we began to get deeper into the project, we were introduced to Brian Smith, owner of Auto Body Color & Supply in Nashville, Tennessee, through mutual friend Kevin Tetz, host of the Trucks! TV show on Spike. As we discussed the paint for Generation Gap, Brian felt a custom mix, essentially our base Ford colors with a little "flair" would accentuate the fastback's flowing lines. When UPS showed up a few weeks later, we had a gallon of Ghost Gray Pearl for our body color and a quart of Reaper Black Metallic for our modified Le Mans-style stripes that were custom-mixed just for our project-just like Brian does for many popular automotive television shows. Once our project has been painted and completed, you'll be able to order the exact same color from Auto Body Color & Supply (or any PPG dealer) for your project as well.

Photo Gallery

Step By Step

Once assembled, the third brake light slid right into place, and once screwed to the trunk lid, the LED light housing sat within 1/8-inch of the lens. This gap will be taken up with a small adhesive backed foam gasket to prevent light leakage into the trunk.